A/52/PV.29 General Assembly

In a letter contained in document A/52/350/Add.3, the Secretary-General informs the President of the General Assembly that, since the issuance of his communications dated 16 and 29 September and 6 October 1997, Equatorial Guinea has made the necessary payment to reduce its arrears below the amount specified in Article 19 of the Charter. May I take it that the General Assembly duly takes note of this information?

May I draw the attention of delegates to the fact that, on the recommendation of the General Committee, the General Assembly decided to consider agenda item 157 directly in plenary meeting. In connection with this item, members will recall that the report of the Secretary-General entitled “Renewing the United Nations: A Programme for Reform” has been issued as document A/51/950. The Assembly also has before it two conference room papers prepared by the Secretariat: A/52/CRP.1, entitled “Establishment of the post of Deputy Secretary- General”, and A/52/CRP.2, entitled “Rationalization of the subsidiary machinery of the Economic and Social Council”. I should like to recall that an informal list of measures and proposals summarizing the principal actions and recommendations contained in the report of the Secretary-General, also prepared by the Secretariat, was made available yesterday and is being distributed today in this Conference Room. Therefore, we have three additional documents prepared by the Secretariat. During the past three weeks, I have carried out extensive consultations on the procedure to be followed to consider the reform proposals submitted by the Secretary-General. It is my understanding that the proposal to consider the item on United Nations reform at informal meetings reflects the preference of the members of the General Assembly. I therefore suggest that, under the chairmanship of the President, and with the assistance of the Vice-Presidents, open-ended informal consultations of the plenary should be held to facilitate the consideration of the reform proposals.

I should like to further propose that, in order to proceed expeditiously with the consideration of I see no objection. We shall therefore proceed accordingly.